MUMBAI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed election victory for his party and its allies on Tuesday (Jun 4), but the opposition said they had “punished” the ruling party by confounding predictions and reducing their parliamentary majority.
“People have placed their faith in NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for a third consecutive time”, Modi wrote on social media platform X.
Vote counting, which neared completion on Tuesday night, showed Modi’s alliance winning albeit with a surprisingly narrow majority.
Unlike the last two elections, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will need its alliance partners to cross the 272 majority mark in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, according to the running vote count.
Modi had set a target of more than 400 seats for his National Democratic Alliance, but it is currently leading in only about 290, according to Election Commission data about three-quarters of the way through the count.
The BJP itself was leading in 239 seats, compared with 303 at the last election in 2019.
“The BJP’s reliance on allies to form the government is a slap in the face,” said Milan Vaishnav at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank in Washington.
“At this stage, NDA allies will extract their pound of flesh, which will have an impact not just in terms of policymaking but also in terms of the composition of the cabinet. (Earlier) the BJP could dictate terms with very little regard for its coalition partners.”
Modi, a strong leader, has not had to rely on alliance partners in the past and it was not clear how easily he would cope.
